Shuttle vs. Aries I, size comparrison

[T-Bird76]

I was browsing through some of the pics that Ben Cooper and Suresh Attapatu have of the KSC in Florida and they took two separate shots that really raised an eyebrow. The shots are the Shuttle and then the Aries I rolling out of the massive processing building. Most of us are use to seeing the shuttle and if you've ever seen the Shuttle up close you know its pretty damn big, and even more so with the booster rockets and fuel tank attached to it...but then you have the new Aries rocket.

After seeing Ben's shot of the Aries rolling out of the processing center and comparing it to the Shuttle rolling out you really get a sense of how big the new Aries rocket is. Its sort of one of those "WOW" shots, at least IMO. To give you an example of how big the processing center is, the Aries I rocket is 38 stories high and Yankee stadium can easily sit on top of the building. Here's the shots..

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/7/3/0/1396037.jpg
While this shot is taken a bit farther back notice that not all the doors are open vs. the Aries below.

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/8/1/7/1600718.jpg

Added size compassion chart.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Size_Comparison.png

[Tom_Turner]

I agree, those are amazing shots of, it you think about the scale of it, an amazing operation.

If I am not mistaken though, I believe the Saturn V (?) would be larger than anything we have today (or, for now, tomorrow).

Tom

[cancidas]

nice find tommy.

tom, just looking at the doors on the vehicle assembly buiding there can't have been much of a size difference between the Saturn V and Aires I. anything taller than either of those two wouldn't have fit inside.

on a side note, the shots these two photogs get are amazing. they shed a lot of light on what happens down at the KSC. i got to visit there once as a kid, would love to go back. better yet, i'd love to work for them!

[Matt Molnar]

If the shuttle were stacked on top of the main fuel tank and solid rocket boosters, it would be about the same size. :)

[Jetinder]

I would love to visit KSC to see a lift off.

Shuttle and Aries look impressive, its a pity Nasa can't keep using both as the Shuttles capacity for cargo looks huge.

[alberchico]

It seems that we're going back to the tried and true Apollo methods of launching people and cargo into space. Is this a giant step foward or a giant step backwards ? What ever happend to the x-33 concept ?

[Jetinder]

It seems that we're going back to the tried and true Apollo methods of launching people and cargo into space. Is this a giant step foward or a giant step backwards ? What ever happend to the x-33 concept ?
I think its down to a number of things
:-

1)
Safety.

Out of all the spacecraft Nasa ever made the Shuttle has been the most dangerouse one of all.

Gemini 8 came close to disaster in Earth orbit when one of its thrusters got stuck but Armstrong saved the day.

Apollo 13 never had a death on launch or reentry but the Shuttle has.

On all past Nasa spacecraft there was a method to get the crew out of danger and away from the launch rocket, but the shuttle never had that ability built in.

2)
Cost

The Shuttle is reusable and was meant to save money on each flight but the press said each Shuttle launch still cost billions of $s.

As a 10 year old kid when the Shuttle first came out I hated it as it wasn't the Saturn V, but as i grew up and learned more about it i realised this was great idea and its sad the Shuttle will be scrapped.

The Shuttle matured in to a great spacecraft, its huge cargo bay allowed it to capture and repair satelites in space. It repaired Hubble many times and showed what man could really do. It could have done the job of Aries 1 by getting people to the ISS and from there moving people over to Aries IX and sending people to the Moon or Mars.

That would have been a great idea but Shuttle's safety record has been a huge concern and Nasa can't afford to loose any more people. So they decided to scrap the Shuttle and go back to the Apollo style rockets which is a shame.

3)
X-33 was a great idea but was cancelled in 2001.

Not sure why, the X-33 was going to use a new rocket engine called an aerospike
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerospike_engine

But the engine was not developed enough for it to be practical.